I’m a sales leadership consultant best known for creating the business concept Noble Purpose. I work with leaders at organizations like Roche, Hootsuite, and Flight Centre to create competitive differentiation. My latest book, Selling with Noble Purpose has been used by companies around the world to help drive revenue, increase customer engagement, and ignite employee passion. My backstory: I’m a former Procter & Gamble sales leader who realized early on that I have a knack for decoding human behavior. When was 14 years old working at The Donut King in Arlington VA, I sold over 700 donuts in a single shift. When the owner, a first generation immigrant, looked into the cash register that night, his jaw dropped, then a huge grin took over his entire face. I knew in that moment, helping other people make money is a noble endeavor .

Why Killing The Competition Is Not A Noble Purpose

During a recent sales kickoff meeting at a high profile SaaS company the senior leadership team rallied their troops to “kill the competition.”

“We’re going to obliterate them.”

“We’re going to make those guys worry about their mortgages!”

The sales force was pumped. Mouths frothed. Fists were raised. They were poised to attack. There was only one problem; at no point during the entire diatribe did anyone from the senior team ever mention their customers.

This is a fatal error.

Focusing on beating the competition, rather than winning customers, is a classic strategic error that often goes unnoticed in the enthusiasm of battle. Yet over time this oft-made mistake stymies growth, stifles innovation, and ultimately, erodes competitive differentiation, the very thing leaders are trying to create.

Here are the three fatal outcomes that occur when leaders focus on the competition instead of the customer:

1. No compelling sales narrativePicture two salespeople calling on the same customer. One spends the majority of his customer facetime poking holes in the competition. The other uses his time to ask the customer questions about their (the customer’s) objectives. He’s then able to link his solution to the key issues most important to the customer. Which do you think will make a better business case for the customer to buy? The one who was focused on the competition, or the one who was focused on the customer

The internal conversation becomes the external conversation. If you pump up your sales team by bashing the competition, that’s exactly what your team will discuss in front of customers. Creating a sales narrative against the competition (versus for the customers) is boring at best. Customers see it for what it is, the lowest form of sales tactics. It’s intellectually lazy, and creates no value for the people who matter most, the customers.

2. Erosion of long-term valueAnnihilating the competition is a short-term tactic that diverts organizations from pursuing a (more profitable) value-driven strategy. A sales team focused on beating the competition is more likely to cut margin to win the business. They’re not equipped to have the kind of strategic conversations with their customers that reveal value opportunities because their leadership hasn’t talked about customers; they’ve only talked about the competition.

Leaders who create an environment of NobleNoble Purpose do just the opposite. They keep the attention where it should be, on the customer. The result is greater innovation and competitive differentiation. Teams focused on the competition rarely innovate because they don’t have enough insight into their customers to come up with anything unique.

3. Absence of Noble PurposeOrganizations with a Noble Sales Purpose ™ gain a competitive advantage; they create more value for customers, which translates into more profits for their own organizations. I created the concept of Noble Purpose after my research with sales teams revealed that sales people who sell with Noble Purpose, who truly want to make a difference to their customers, drive more revenue than salespeople who are focused on quotas or beating the competition.

Deloitte’s third annual Core Beliefs and Culture Survey validates the tight correlation between purpose and profits. Summarizing the findings, Deloitte Chairman of the Board, Punit Renjen says, “In order to generate extraordinary profits, you must have a focus that is beyond profits. You need to focus on how you serve your clients.”

Annihilating the competition is not a Noble Purpose. Customers and employees eventually see it for what it is, a short-term grab for profits that creates little long-term value for anyone.

The data is clear; it confirms what we already know in our hearts to be true. Organizations whose Noble Purpose is to add value to their customers outperform organizations that are merely trying to beat the competition.

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